OCTOBER 18, 1889.]

a resistance of 7 ohms for 20 minutes. In cases where the transmitter is to be used for longer periods, it is necessary to use a constant current battery. We find the Fuller battery to give the best results under such conditions.

For the interior office wire, nothing less than copper wire 0403 inch in diameter, insulated to of an inch, with the best quality of waterproof insulation is to be used, clamped to the wall by wooden cleats if possible.

The wires should enter the building through hard rubber tubes, which are so inclined that no water can leak in. From this point to the roof rubber-covered wire should be used, extending to the overhead conductors, all connections being made with McIntire sleeves or soldered. The line wires should be hard drawn copper, having a diameter of at least '08 inch, and supported every 125 feet. Copper wire is recommended on account of its low resistance, its low electrostatic capacity, as compared with iron or steel wire of the same conductivity; its low coefficient of selfinduction, and especially its durability. There is little depreciation in copper wire after it has been strung, the gases common to large cities having very little action upon it, and its life is very many times greater than that of iron or steel wire, thus rendering it in the end the most economical.

In making joints in hard drawn copper wire the McIntire sleeve should be used.

In building the loop, both sides of the circuit should occupy adjacent pins on either housetop fixtures or on a pole line, thus causing the relative distance of the two sides of the circuit, toward foreign wires, to be the same throughout their course. This is of great importance if the loop is of sufficient length to render transpositions necessary. On exposed housetop fixtures nothing but waterproof insulated wire is to be used. From the cable fixture, leading wires, not less than 0403 inch in diameter, insulated of an inch with the best quality of waterproof insulation, extended through cleats on the under side of the cross arm to wooden ducts fastened to the back of the cross arms, or through properly constructed cables, should lead to the cable box or tower. The leading wires should be joined to the line wires either by McIntire sleeves or by soldering. Care must be taken not to solder to the line wire between supports, as heating the hard drawn copper anneals it and reduces its tensile strength.

Inclosing the cable terminal we have used a dust and moisture proof iron cable tower, cylindrical in shape, built completely round the pole, and supplied with a suitable platform and railing. A complete description of this tower may be found in the report of the last Cable Conference. If a wooden box is used it should be made of 1 inch pine, tongued and grooved, having double doors hinged at the top and opening together. Its interior dimensions should be sufficient to give a space ample for placing the cable head, lightning arresters, and bridle wires. The box should be well oiled on its interior and painted thoroughly on the outside before placing in position, the joints being white leaded before the box is put together. The terminal tower or box is to be locked, and it is recommended that a standard padlock be adopted and used for this purpose.

In this tower or box the bridle wires

are connected to the plate and fusible arresters. To protect the cable against heavy electrical discharges, we provide at the exterior terminal fusible coils and properly constructed plate or pointed lightning arresters. The fusible coil at this point is so designed that it burns out with a current of 1 ampère, thus having twice the carrying capacity of the central office arrester; this protects the cables and prevents a large number of burn-outs at points remote from the office, locating most of them at the office terminal, where they may be quickly repaired. The outside wires extend first to the plate arrester, which discharges the lightning to ground at the cable pole and prevents the burning out of many fusible coils. The ground plates upon the arresters should be connected to moist earth by means of conductors run independently of the cable sheath, and should have three times the conductivity of the line wire.

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For this purpose, three No. 12 hard drawn copper wires twisted together may be used.

The arresters should be connected to the cable heads by waterproof insulated wire.

The binding posts on the cable terminals should be arranged in pairs, so that the two wires of a pair will be exactly opposite each other horizontally. This form is described in the report of the last Cable Conference. Its advantages are apparent at once. If a form of cable is used not requiring a permanent head, it may be connected directly to the lightning arrester binding posts in the order recommended above. We recommend, especially at the cable head, that nothing but lock-nut binding posts should be used.

The underground cable should extend from the subway to the fixture at which the terminal is placed, through a 3-inch iron pipe. These cables are usually led to and enter the office building in a great mass of ducts. At the point where they enter the office it is of especial importance that each cable should be available for handling at any time. It has been found that a symmetrical method of leading cables from any massed run into two vertical lines, hanging them on cable hooks attached to posts, or to the walls of the building, provides a plan whereby any one cable may be reached as desired. At each angle, or, indeed, at each point at which it is ever expected to reach and handle the cables, some such arrangement should be made. In many of the present large underground systems no provision has been made for this purpose. The cables have been pulled in indiscriminately, and no regular method of attachment has been provided. As a result, in what are purported to be drawing-in and drawing-out underground systems, it is even now becoming very difficult to do the work of drawing in, and wholly impossible to do the work of drawing out specific cables, without interrupting the whole system. This is apparently caused, first, by the very limited area of the underground manholes, and, second, by the failure to provide a comprehensive system, by means of which every one of the underground ducts may be utilised as desired.

In making a recommendation for a central office we are brought into consideration of the larger subject of the telephone building itself. This should be designed especially for the occupation of the operating switchboard and its necessary adjuncts. To that end the build. ing should first of all be fireproof. The operating office should be on the top floor. Provision should be made for leading the underground cables to a shaft of suitable dimensions, extending to a room which should be set apart for the terminals, distributing and testing purposes. Near to this should be a battery and power room of ample dimensions, providing for the generators, motors, main and testing batteries, with the necessary water connections and other appurtenances. The form of the operating room itself would, of course, depend largely upon local conditions. One of the chief requisites should be the anticipated ultimate capacity of the exchange. In general, if it is necessary to deflect the board from a straight line, it is better to have the operators work from the inside of a circle than around the outside, the arrangement being such that all operators are at once within view of the chief operator. The office should be free from elevator shafts or other obstructions, and should not be made a passageway for employés in reaching the roof or any other part of the building.

In view of the specific purposes of the telephone building, we think that, before plans are made for it, the telephone engineer, together with the architect, should definitely lay out the space to be occupied by the different departments which are to be devoted to the business, and especially their relation to the operating room, as it is almost impossible in a building already completed, or having plans laid out independent of this purpose, to arrange a telephone plant to the best advantage.

The underground cables extending to the operating office should be of the well-known Conference standard, No. 18 B. & S. gauge wires, twisted in pairs. At the central office end these cables should extend to a

room just as near the operating office as possible, where they should be headed and connected to fusible arresters which will burn out with a current of half an ampère. From these arresters the circuits should be led by office cables twisted in pairs to the terminals of the distributing board, the opposite terminals of this board. leading to the operating switchboard. This distributing board should be made in such form that wires may be led at any time from any point on the line terminals to any desired number on the switch board terminals, it being so arranged that even when fully occupied all distributing wires are available for handling as desired. The distributing wires should be rubber covered, twisted in pairs and soldered at the connections. It is especially recommended that the cable heads be mounted on a fireproof fixture and that the distributing board be made fireproof.

When arranged in this manner the circuits are available for testing purposes at the fusible arresters, where they may be tested out through the underground cables or in through the distributing and operating switchboards. When an office is so arranged it is of advantage, therefore, that the testing should be done in this terminal and distributing room, and that this room should be accessible without passing through the operating room. The terminal and testing room should be in charge of the chief inspector, by whom all circuits would be tested, and who would have charge of the general work of the exchange. There should be. supplied for his use a telephone outfit, with connections to the office manager or chief operator; circuits through the operating board; a circuit to the generator and power tables, and also to plugs available at the cable heads, by means of which line or office tests may be made. He should have also a Morse outfit with relay and key, with a battery circuit included, and be supplied with a galvanometer outfit and a Wheatstone bridge.

While it is not recommended that at every exchange office there should be kept additional and more delicate instruments for making insulation resistance, or capacity tests, it is expected that in each company these appliances are available, and they may be connected for such tests through this chief inspector's apparatus.

In the operating room of the larger exchanges, we recommend that there be placed a multiple switchboard adapted for metallic circuits. This will extend, preferably, in one line at about 4 feet from the wall. The number of circuits terminating at each section of the board will largely depend upon the average daily use of the telephones in the exchange. Broadly, however, it may be stated that one operator wil handle 100 lines, if not burdened with the making of tickets or the handling of incoming local trunk wires. If branch offices exist in the exchange, the incoming trunk wires are preferably to be handled on the first one or two sections of the board, and the toll-line business preferably handled at the first section. At this section connections may be made requiring tickets or other records, such as checks on toll or long-distance business. If incoming trunks from a branch office are handled, they should be operated preferably by operators having, in connection with their telephones, a talking circuit," its two branches extending "open" to the branch exchanges, so that calls received by these operators would be through his telephone. The trunk lines should be so arranged, however, that they may be operated by ringing calls in the usual manner if desired, without regard to the talking circuit.

At the subscribers' sections, three operators' outfits should be provided in the usual manner, excepting that double plugs, cords and ringing keys are used, and the talking circuit is bridged, not looped. The line circuits would extend through this board in the usual manner, the line and test wires being twisted together in pairs throughout the cables and operated as the two sides of the metallic circuits. After passing through the last multiple board, the circuits would extend through an intermediate distributing board, placed preferably immediately back of the multiple sections. At this board the circuits may be distributed to such

[OCTOBER 18. 1889

answering jacks and drops as may be desired. These answering jacks and drops are arranged in front of each operator, the drop being of high resistance and retardation, preferably of what is now known as the tubular pattern, and bridged across the circuit which extends from it to the answering jack, where it is to open until a plug is inserted. By this arrangement the line drop itself is used for the disconnection signal. The advantages of having the line and clearing out drops identical have been appreciated within the last two or three years, especially in the use of single-cord boards, in which type of board the work of clearing out and watching connections is probably better done than in any other. In a board so arranged it will be seen that when two metallic circuits are connected together all the advantages of a metallic circuit are preserved. In all cases grounded circuits extended to the exchange through metallic circuit cables should be connected to ground at the outer end of the cable, the unused wire of the pair being grounded at that point. Therefore, when a grounded circuit is connected to a metallic circuit by means of this return wire, the advantages of the metallic circuit are extended to the outer or grounded end of the cable, from which points of course, the single wire will be subject to such interferences as its exposure may bring into play. The return wire is by no means thrown away, but is thus utilised throughout the cable. When two grounded wires are connected together they are practically preserved from interferences from adjacent wires throughout the cables and the operating apparatus by the shield of the twisted mate, which is grounded at its extreme ends. As all of these wires enter the office in pairs, it is essential that the use of each wire of a pair should be distinguished throughout its entire length, and it should be provided that in the cables, as well as throughout the switchboard, the white wire be used for the line and the coloured wire for the test.

With the extension of metallic circuits it is often asked how they may be utilised for the service of two or more subscribers on the same circuit. Probably the best results are accomplished by bridging the different instruments on to the two sides of the metallic circuit, using a ringer magnet at each instrument, of high resistance and retardation. By this arrangement the electrical balance is preserved, and no alteration in the ordinary form of operating apparatus is made necessary.

It has been the practice, heretofore, to loop intermediate sets of instruments into a circuit. At first this practice was persisted in when metallic circuits were introduced, additional instruments being looped into the side of the circuit. Such an arrangement, however, destroys the balance, and the instrument so connected will be subject to disturbances as loud as the line is capable of producing, and it will also be a source of disturbance to the other instruments in the circuits. By connecting all instruments, however, in multiple arc, i.e., bridging across the circuit, nothing is lost in transmission, if the coils have sufficient retardation and the electrical balance necessary to the proper working of the metallic circuit is preserved. Systems have also been devised whereby a third ringing wire is legged on to the metallic circuit extending through the ringer magnets of all the instruments. This wire is open when the telephone is removed from the hook. It seems that at the time this latter plan was thought of the successful results of the bridging-in system had not been appreciated. In a number of instances attempts have been made to eliminate disturbances on grounded wires from electric railways and electric lights, by the use of a common return wire. While this has been of advantage in some cases in connection with single wires, the common return has no advantage as forming a part of a metallic circuit, and its use in direct connection with a metallic circuit is not to be thought of

With circuits arranged as detailed above, the entire central office and cable plant is provided against inductive interferences originating within their limits, and the exchange is in condition to be easily changed to a complete metallic system.

a local metallic circuit so arranged as to extend as a metallic circuit through the long-distance or metallic circuit switchboard, where one branch is grounded, the other branch extending in the ordinary manner as a single wire through the local exchange. Locally, the wire is handled in the usual manner. At the combination board, however, the circuit extends to two jacks, and is handled by means of a twin plug. If in combination with a multiple board, the jacks are so arranged as to provide the usual "busy" tests when a plug is inserted. The circuit led by the twin plug and double cord at this combination should have all the advantages required for long-distance work. It is also found that in grounded circuit multiple boards very much of the induction which is occasioned by the old method of wiring may be overcome by using double plugs and cords, the outer shell of the plug being connected directly to the ground, by means of which the test ring is grounded independently of the line wire. During the transition period from grounded to metallic circuit apparatus, therefore, we would recommend the use of the combination board, and of the double plug and cord in connection with a multiple switchboard. It might appear at first that by using double plugs and cords on a multiple board wired on the old plan, the apparatus throughout could be operated for metallic circuits. This, however, is not the case, as owing to the fact that the wires are not twisted in pairs, there is actually more induction between wires in the board when operated as metallic circuits than on the plan indicated for operating grounded circuits.

At many of the Eastern cities through which the main lines of the Long-Distance Company pass, special metallic circuit switchboards have been placed for the purpose of handling these circuits and such local metallic circuits as were to be connected to them. In order to avoid all possible leakages or troubles in these boards, it has been thought advisable to connect each wire of the metallic circuit to a separate spring jack. These jacks are arranged in pairs and handled by means of a twin plug. This consists of two ordinary round plugs in one handle. Adjacent to this board is placed a testing board, through which the wires pass, and at which they may be handled for testing purposes in either direction. In connection with one or more of the local circuits on the board are placed repeating coils, which terminate in single lines in the local exchanges. The form of the repeating coils and the method of connection are now well known. In connection with these switchboards are the long distance metallic circuits.

In the building of these lines probably more attention has been paid to the requirements of a high-class service than in any other existing plant. Their record in maintenance and in service performed during the past three years is too well known to need comment. It is of interest, however, to state that on the oldest of these extensions, being the line of 25 wires between New York and Philadelphia, there are probably to-day fewer interruptions than at any previous time, the line having shown absolutely no deterioration.

On these long distance lines the problem of overcoming inductive interference from one circuit to another proved a very serious one. A system for so transposing the wires that no inductive interference exists between the pairs was, however, devised, and has been reduced to practice.

In ordinary pole lines, where the wires are placed on cross arms 12 inches apart, it is found that the inductive interference between adjacent metallic circuits experienced in an exposure of one mile is not serious,

using the present long distance transmitter and hand telephone,

Adopting this as a basis, the systematic plan of transpositions provides that at distances of one mile the two branches of the metallic circuit on which the disturbing effect is experienced are so transposed that when the distant end of the line is reached each branch of the circuit has had a like amount of exposure to the adjacent wires. When metallic circuits are arranged in this manner inductive disturbances are entirely overcome. Where disturbances are caused by electric light or electric railway circuits of course transpositions must be made more frequently, as the amount of exposure which may be tolerated depends upon the intensity of the disturbing circuits. Transpositions have been best handled mechanically by the use of a special double transposition insulator recently devised for this purpose. This arrangement consists of two insulators, one being placed immediately above the other. The lower one has a hole through the top, and the pin extends up through it; the upper one is then threaded on to the top of the pin. In order that ordinary pins may be used a threading tool has been devised by means of which any pin may be turned down to the desired dimensions. During construction in transposing, the left hand wire of a pair is brought around the upper insulator and then extended parallel with the cross arm, back of and around the upper right hand insulator. The right hand wire of the pair extends around the right hand lower insulator along the arm and back of and around the left hand lower insulator. The wires are tied at each insulator in the usual manner. Where existing circuits are to be transposed of course the wires in either direction must be "dead ended" at the respective insulators, and it is then usual to make the transposition by means of a short piece of insulated wire drawn tightly across the two wires. Where a large number of wires are to be transposed the plan of arranging them properly becomes more involved, and should be laid out by a competent telephone engineer. If a metallic circuit for telephone purposes is constructed upon plans properly laid out every particle of outside disturbance may be overcome and the services may be made perfect. Any falling away from the high standard of these plans, however, at once detracts from the results, and should not be tolerated.

It must not be thought that what we have called "The New Era in Telephony," the various details of which we have attempted to describe, is something entirely new. This is not the case. To-day it is a commercial factor for which the public is making loud demands. Many of our largest exchanges have been reconstructed to meet the new requirements. New York, with a present office equipment for nearly 10,000 lines and nearly 50 miles of conference cable in circuit, is in the lead. In Buffalo and New Haven the entire exchange plants are being rearranged, while in Baltimore and in 11 New England cities, metallic circuit operating apparatus is shortly to be placed.

Although individual discoveries and inventions will undoubtedly lead to improvements in the detail of the appliances involved, yet we think that it will be by adhering to uniform practices, by a concerted action on the part of the companies taking up the new service, and a careful consideration of their experiences, that the greatest improvements may be looked for.

During the past very much has been lost by a lack of uniformity, and by the failure to find out and use what was really the best in appliances and general plans for the service. The methods of the East and the West have differed widely, and in some localities the business seems to have been run on the assumption that it was not there subject to the same electrical and natural laws as elsewhere. As a result there has been no fixed standard of telephone exchange service.

We have never heard of any exchange that its service was too good. This is, perhaps, owing to the nature of the business itself, and yet it is in spite of the very best efforts of telephone men and the liberal expenditure of money in providing what was thought to be best. There is probably no exchange to-day that does not

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represent what was thought to be the very best engineering at the date of its construction. In the light of modern development, however, we see in these existing plants too many wires in single cables, too small wire, rusted out plants of iron or steel wire, deterioration of insulation in outside or inside wiring, twenty different styles of battery in service, as testimonials of the dearly-bought experiences of the past. We also see some exchanges overcrowded with operators, working as if the service was to be performed by the force of numbers. In some the benefits of modern appliances are lost because of the lack of proper utilisation. One exchange, for example, shows you 300 subscribers' lines terminating on one section of a multiple switchboard. In another you will find less than 100. It will not much overstate the case to say that in making plans for telephone exchanges, either the plans of similar establishments elsewhere have not been studied at all, or if they have been studied, the judgment of them has been so influenced by local conditions as to preclude their possible benefits. In this "new era," in which a perfected service is to be given, such engineering cannot possibly be successful. Our companies are now unanimous in telling us that nothing is too good for the service. Unfortunately, to those in direct charge of the service, this statement means very little. What is needed is some source of information from which we may learn just exactly what is good for the service. May not this association, whose membership comprises all well-known experts and telephone engineers, keep posted in telephone matters in various localities, and determine, for our mutual benefit, the best practical plans for telephone work? Thus there might be furnished to the companies included in this association detailed plans covering every branch of the telephone service, by means of which we may raise the standard of workmanship in our employés, remedy as far as possible the effects of the loose methods of past years, and properly provide for the requirements of the future.

The new era in our business has dawned brightly; our patrons see and appreciate it; skilful engineering will provide for its needs, and eternal vigilance will preserve it.

NEWS FROM AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

[FROM A CORRESPONDENT.]

ON the Vienna-Prague telephone line, concerning the opening of which I reported to you, communication began on October 1st, of this year, and has now been extended to the subscribers of both telephonic nets, so that from this day both the subscribers of the Vienna Telegraph Company, as also to the town participants and the public speaking cells can correspond with the Prague subscribers of the telephone company of Austria. That this telephonic connection meets a want which has been very sensibly felt appears from the circumstance that on the first day of opening this connection was used-notwithstanding the relatively high prices (one florin for an ordinary conversation lasting three minutes, or three florins for an 66 urgent" conversation of the same length) by 250 subscribers.

The underground telephonic intercourse makes altogether, in Austra-Hungary, very satisfactory progress. The line Vienna-Buda-Pest is to be thrown open for intercourse on November 1st, and in the next year the three celebrated summer resorts in Salzburg territory -Gmunden, Ischl, and Aussee, will be connected with each other and with Vienna by means of the town telegraph.

In the works of the Buda-Pest electrical town railway (Siemens and Halske) there have occurred in the last week of September repeated interruptions. Indeed, the traffic had to be completely suspended for a short time. These irregularities-as it appears from a report made by the undertakers to the city-are due, not to the electric installation, but to the steam boilers ich were imperfectly constructed. This statement

[OCTOBER 18. 1889.

is corroborated by a commission of investigation sent out by the Municipality. At present the line is again in action in all parts, since the traffic-until the final re-organisation of the steam boilers-is provisionally maintained by means of auxiliary locomotives.

At Temesvar, where, as it is well known, the Brush Company fitted up, last year, an installation of transformers, private lighting is now supplied from the central station, and makes satisfactory progress. Next the Synagogue there will be supplied with electric light, and this, to my knowledge, will be the first electrically lighted Synagogue in Austria-Hungary.

The electric lead of the Temesvar installation occasioned about two weeks ago a peculiar misfortune. A miller's apprentice, who lost his equilibrium in the second storey, had, to save himself from falling, laid hold of a primary wire running about a metre below the window. In falling he seems to have brought his left arm above the wrist in contact with the second primary wire, which-as the insulation of the leads had been totally soaked through by a fall of rain which had lasted for some days-occasioned his immediate death. The passers-by had their attention attracted by a peculiar crackling sound, and with much difficulty they succeeded in extricating the dead lad from the conductors.

One of the richest and most respected of the Hungarian magnates, Count Nicholas von Esterházy, bas caused a very artistically designed and splendidly executed private theatre to be erected at his beautifully situate castle of Totis. It is illuminated in all parts with the electric light. The theatre forms an annexe to the buildings of the Winter Riding School. The entrance is from the great glass court leading to the vestibule, in which are the wardrobes for the public. From here we arrive by a broad marble staircase into the parquet, and to the right and the left there lead two broad stairs to the estrade of the cavalier seats. At both sides of the proscenium roomy boxes are arranged, and opposite to the stage there is a special box. Above this special box there is a spacious balcony for about 100 people; altogether the theatre holds about 300 persons.

As the theatre, like the castle Totis, altogether commands one of the loveliest views in a charming neighbourhood, the electric installation for supplying the light could not be erected near the castle, but it has been placed in a sawmill belonging to the estate, at a distance of 1,300 metres. Here there is a Zipernowski alternating current machine, of the model A, supplying 12 ampères and 1,000 volts, driven by a 15 horse-power turbine. The lighting, which is effected by means of transformers, comprises 160 glow lamps on the stage, 30 in the orchestra, 80 in the auditorium, and 80 in the adjoining rooms, circus, dining rooms and atelier.

This comparatively small theatre is fitted with all modern theatrical appliances, e.g., for the production of colours, and for the regulation of the light.

The formal opening took place on the 4th of this month before a numerous and select audience, and in presence of the Archduke Otho and the Duke of Bra ganza, and numerous representatives of the highest Hungarian nobility.

CONTINENTAL NOTES.

[FROM A CORRESPONDENT.]

The Annales de l'Electricité states that M. Kotovich has undertaken at the Moscow Physiological Laboratory a series of experiments as to the comparative sensibility of the telephone and the frog under the influence of the effects of induction which manifest themselves in electro-physiological experiments. M. Kotovich used a Siemens telephone, which, according to him, was much more sensitive than those of Golubitsky and Bell, and he found that, when continuous currents were employed, the distance between the bobbins at which contractions could be made to appear varied from 45 to 58 centimetres, and that at which the sound of the

OCTOBER 18, 1889.]

telephone was heard most feebly varies from 135 to 164 centimetres, he deduces from this that the telephone is much more sensitive than the frog. In another series of experiments M. Kotovich made use of alternating currents, and in this case his conclusions were contrary to the preceding; and he concluded that the relative sensibility of the telephone and the frog depends largely on the nature of the currents employed.

An interesting discussion took place at the Railway Congress in Paris on means of traction, which subject, by the bye, figured on the programme of the Milan Congress of 1887, but which was then adjourned. M. Michelet, manager of the General Belgian Company of Secondary Railways, who had been appointed reporter for the session just ended, successively studied in his work electric traction by accumulators or by conductors, compressed air motors, hot water motors, soda motors, gas motors, automobile carriages, the Fell central rail system, toothed rack traction, funicular traction by alternating movement, and, lastly, funicular traction by continuous movement. The numerous figures given by the author were discussed by MM. Beguami, Decauville, Meyer, Ellisen, and others, and the section finally adopted the following resolutions :-1. Electrical accumulators may be employed more especially on lines with low gradients served by automotor carriages.

They will not be sufficient in cases where an effort of heavy traction is required. 2. Electrical traction by conductors may be employed to all workings where other means of traction present serious inconveniences. 3. Hot water and compressed air motors are substituted for locomotives under the same conditions as electrical traction by conductors, when the length of the journey and the intensity of the efforts do not form an obstacle. 4. The automotor carriages, Rowan type, find their application in the working of branch lines of light traffic; the length of these lines presents no obstacle to the employment of this system. 5. As to the means of working lines with steep gradients, the toothed rack appears master of the position, both as regards the expenses of the first establishment, and also as regards working expenses. 6. Lastly, the funicular system by alternating movements is only applicable to straight lines of limited length, and appears specially to be recommended when the motive power can be furnished by a natural force.

The electric lighting of the towns of Albaute and Ternal, in Spain, has been entrusted to Planas, Flaquer et Cie.

According to statistics recently published, the number of people killed by lightning in France from 1852 to 1882 was 653, of whom 487 were men, and 166 women, most of those killed being struck in the open.

We learn from Paris that the Administration of Posts and Telegraphs has directed an interesting enquiry on the subject of communes not provided with telegraph offices. The installation and working of a telephonic communication costing much less than those of a telegraphic service, an examination is to be made whether a telephone line cannot be given to the communes which wish to be joined to a head quarters, in default of a telegraph line.

An amusing scene was witnessed last week in Paris. In the evening the horses which passed along the boulevard at the top of the Rue Louis le Grand seemed seized with vertigo, jumping about like sheep. The disorder among the traffic soon became so great, that the police officials had to stop the traffic. The cause of the trouble was soon discovered. One of the electric cables placed under the thoroughfare, and leading to a lampstand placed on a refuge, had become disarranged, and, coming in contact with the damp wooden pavement, the horses, in passing over it, received a shock. Some of the company's workmen were soon on the spot, and restored things to their normal condition. The next morning, however, some slight shocks, it is stated, were experienced at the same place.

Among the new companies lately formed in Paris is that of Perreur-Lloyd, which was registered on August 9th, the founders being MM. Perreur père and Perreur

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fils. The objects of this company are as follows:1. Lighting in France and all its colonies by electricity. 2. The creation, provision of money for, and the working of stations. 3. The sale of all products and subproducts. 4. The obtainment, purchase, and working of all patents relating thereto. 5. And all financial and industrial objects generally. The capital has been fixed at 500,000 francs, divided into 1,000 shares of 500 francs each; out of these 1,000 shares 600 have been given to the founders, half each, in satisfaction of their claims. There have also been created 1,000 founders' shares, entitled to 40 per cent. of the profits. The duration of the company is to be 99 years. The founders have been appointed directors for 10 years.

Under the heading of "Dedicated to Mr. Preece," the Independence Belge says:-M. Eugène Person, aged 21, was employed in the electric lighting at the Eden Theatre, Paris. Last night, while at work, he slipped and mechanically endeavoured to save himself by clutching the conductor wires which were near him. The young man, who was not wearing India-rubber insulating gloves, fell backwards. He was picked up insensible, and taken to the Beaujon Hospital, where for more than an hour efforts were made to resuscitate him by the methods generally employed in cases of asphyxiation, but they were useless-he was dead.

According to a measure just submitted to the Italian Chambers, the establishment and working of the telephone for public use can only be carried out by virtue of a Government concession. The concessionaires and the Government, when it undertakes itself the establishment and working of the telephone, will have the right to pass the wires either over private properties, or underground through these properties; in the last case, however, an eventual indemnity is to be given, to be determined, in case of dispute, by the Prefect, those interested having their remedy before the judicial authorities. The maximum rate of charge in the interior of a commune or group of communes will be 200 francs per year within a radius of 3 kilometres from the central office. The maximum charge for inter-communal communications will be 1.50 franc for 5 minutes' conversation, for distances which do not exceed 100 kilometres, and two francs for greater distances.

By a warrant, dated Paris, September 19th, the bronze medal of Posts and Telegraphs has been conferred upon MM. Barbagelata and Porret, two of the crew of the Anadyr, whose courage was most conspicuously displayed in saving despatches at the wreck of that vessel at Aden on July 11th, 1889.

ELECTRIC LIGHTING IN THE CITY. REPORTS OF THE STREETS COMMITTEE, COL. HAYWOOD AND MR. PREECE.

A SPECIAL meeting of the Commissioners of Sewers has been convened by Mr. G. Manners (the chairman), to be held on Monday, to consider the report of the Streets Committee, the abstract of tenders, together with reports of the engineer and Mr. Preece, and the modifications proposed by the Metropolitan Electric Supply Company and the London Electric Supply Corporation. The Streets Committee are Messrs. F. F. Day, G. Manners, G. N. Johnson, H. H. Bridgman, A. Pickering, Richard Stapley, G. Taylor, J. L. Sayer, and H. W. Greenwood, and their report, which was sent out to the members of the Commission last Monday, is as follows:

"We whose names are hereunto subscribed of your Streets Committee, to whom on the 26th day of February last it was referred to advertise for tenders for electric lighting based upon the conditions then approved, do certify that in the first place we instructed the engineer and solicitor, with Mr. Preece, the electrician, to prepare the necessary form of tender and specification.

"This having been done and advertisements issued,